d3:My company was scheduled to have a Sea Launch in March of 2007. That failed rocket cost us another 6 months delay as we found a new launch provider. The industry standard is about 5% failure/95% successful launch. I'm just glad it wasn't us.

Sea Launch is still in business, under new owners since it declared bankruptcy in '09. The explosion was impressive, but did only superficial damage to the launch platform.

The Halifax explosion caused a super fast tsunami that leveled a huge area of the city. If it wasn't for the Halifax citadel breaking up the shock wave most of the city may have been destroyed. My grandmother told me years back that they could feel the shock wave in Amherst NS, that's about 3 hours drive.

Red_Fox:The Halifax explosion caused a super fast tsunami that leveled a huge area of the city. If it wasn't for the Halifax citadel breaking up the shock wave most of the city may have been destroyed. My grandmother told me years back that they could feel the shock wave in Amherst NS, that's about 3 hours drive.

They heard the explosion on the eastern shore of PEI... that's 5 hours...

BunkyBrewman:I was in Vegas when that Pepco plant exploded. (twice) I was at least a good ten miles away at the time. The window to my room was open and when the explosions happened, it was like somebody had thrown a beach ball through the curtains. (it also rocked the place) Surprised it only claimed two lives.

I was on a field trip to Bob Baskin Park on Oakey and we heard the explosion.

MBrady:Crazy question. Where was the Pepco plant? Just curious. I know Henderson, but any particular street/road?

If deadliest has its usual meaning then only explosions caused by Little Boy and Fat Man belong list. (A few other nuclear explosions accidentally killed small numbers of people, but thousands of non-nuclear explosions killed more.)

Kraftwerk Orange:"After the fall of Charleston in May 1780, the British collected all the Patriot weapons in Mount Pleasant and Charleston. As the British loaded the wagons, they were warned that some of the weapons were loaded and should be handled carefully. After the weapons were loaded, they were driven to a warehouse on the extreme west side of Charleston because it was sparsely populated and bordered by a creek and marsh. The warehouse contained 4,000 pounds of fixed ammunition (cartridges already joined to their projectile) and next to it was a Patriot powder magazine only 200 paces away containing 10,000 pounds of black powder.

Even though the British were warned of some weapons being loaded, they began throwing the weapons into the warehouse. The cause of the explosion is not known, but was believed to be caused by a loaded weapon discharging into a keg of black powder. The result was that the building exploded with such force that debris and body parts were blown about .3 mile to the intersection of Meeting and Cumberland Streets. The explosion set fire to several buildings close to the warehouse,but did not set the Patriot magazine on fire as it had a high brick wall around it. It is believed that 200-300 people died in the explosion and resulting fire. The number of British killed in the explosion nearly equaled the number killed during the Siege of Charleston.

Capt. Johann von Ewald, a Hessian soldier who was going to a Charleston coffeehouse stated: "I had hardly entered the house, when such an extraordinary blast occurred that the house shook. I ran out of the house, saw a thick cloud of vapor a short distance away, and rushed there. The most dreadful cries arose from all sides of the city. I saw that the magazine into which I intended to go some eight or ten minutes earlier, had blown up with all the people who worked in and around it, along with several adjacent houses. The view was horrible. Never in my life as long as I have been a soldier, have I witnessed a m ...

I have seen the crater at the civil war fort "Fort Davidson", where the powder magazine was fired to prevent it falling into enemy hands.